Fatimah : My straightforward girl

It's as impressing as it is challenging.

Sometimes, I feel I don't give as much attention to Fatimah as much as I did to Fahira when she's her age. It's a guilty feeling to me because Fatimah was 2 years and 1 month when Farisha was born while Fahira was 4 years and 2 months when Fatimah was born. My husband keeps telling me to not feel that way, because we all love and treat them the same. Yeah, I think I shouldn't.

The obvious acts we demonstrate to show them that we love them the same : Buying the same amount of clothes, feeding the same meal, kiss them all before sleep, take them all when we want to go out, etc.

I'll do a lot of things to make them understand that I balance my love for them, I do not want to cause anyenvy that might lead to hate the sibling. But, off course, there are some different reactions to their actions because of their different characters. Fahira is a very helpful girl when she is alone and doesn't play with friends, Farisha loves freedom and doesn't really like to stay still, while Fatimah just want to do what she wants to do. Fatimah is a straightforward person, she says what she wants and what she doesn't. The impressing side? Well, she never lie and I don't have to dig for what she feels inside. The challenging part? Hhhhh, It tests my patience to the limit when she doesn't want to take a bath, or eat or wear proper clothes when we want to go out. Things like that does make me lose temper sometimes.

One day, she didn't want to eat the whole day, she just had some coconut biscuits and sweet tea for breakfast. I tried to persuade her, asked what she liked to eat, offerrred her to eat while playing until I forced her, but she kept saying she didn't want to. I gave up. And at 3 am she woke up to say she was hungry and asked for food. And to my surprise, I was not angry. I was happy that finally my daughter would fill her stomach with food. The thought of she might have stomach ache if she didn't eat beated my sleepless night. It must be because I love her so much.

We never knew our patience limit until we become a parent
-- Hijriatul Laila --